Gulf tour: action ordered against Arabic professor

The State government has ordered disciplinary action against an Arabic professor of Sullamussalam Arabic College, Areacode, Malappuram district, on the charge of tampering with the college attendance records for availing salary for days he had spent on an unauthorised foreign jaunt in the Gulf.

The Additional Chief Secretary, in a letter to the Director of Collegiate Education, has asked him to initiate disciplinary action against Prof. M. Abdurahiman Salafi, who was also a former member of the Calicut University Syndicate, and the College Principal Mohammed Thayyib Sullami for facilitating the former to alter the attendance register to get his salary.

The order has been issued after the Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau submitted a quick verification report on the basis of a petition filed by A.M. Subair of Manjeri, Malappuram before the Thrissur Vigilance Inquiry Commissioner and Special Judge last year.

The allegation was that Prof. Abdurahiman had “proceeded to Gulf countries seeking employment as an electrician and claimed pay and emoluments for the period he had spent abroad by making false entries in the attendance register and other documents with the connivance of Principal Mohammed Thayyib Sullami and thereby obtained undue pecuniary gains and causing corresponding loss to the government.”

The Vigilance Department has found out that Prof. Abdurahiman had made several trips to Gulf countries between January 2009 and December 2012 by availing leave with allowance, casual leave and commuted leave. Most of his trips were done without informing the department.

Prof. Abdurahiman was a member of the previous Syndicate of the Calicut University. He was nominated by the Indian Union Muslim League then.

A copy of the G.O. and the Vigilance report made available to The Hindu showed that Prof. Abdurahiman had taken part in the centralized valuation camp held at Madeenathul Uloom Arabic College, Pulikkal in August 2009. However, his passport and travel particulars obtained from Calicut and Nedumbassery airports exposed that he was on a foreign trip to Sharjah and Qatar during that period. Incidentally he had also benefited by getting his salary.

Investigators found out that the Professor had submitted leave application for sanctioning leave without allowance from December 1, 2009 to November 30, 2010 to take up employment abroad. But he “entered on leave with effect from December 1, 2009 before getting sanction from the government.”

Subsequently he was warned of disciplinary action by the manager following a direction from the Directorate of Collegiate Education and the period of his unauthorised absence was treated as non-duty. Prof. Abdurahiman had made several unauthorized visits to Dubai, Doha, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah and he had claimed salary for many of those days by illegally signing the attendance register. In many of his applications he had not mentioned his intention to go abroad. “It is seen that he has not stayed long periods in foreign countries in a single journey. Hence it is understood that he has made personal visit to those countries,” the report said. However, the report also stated that the allegation that Prof. Abdurahiman had worked in Saudi Arabia as an electrician could not be proved.